Correlates of Management Practices of Primary School Head Teachers in Promoting Child-friendly School Environments

Correlates of Management Practices of Primary School Head Teachers in Promoting Child-friendly School Environments

CHAPTER ONE

Objective of the Study

The study is designed to examine the demographic correlates of head teachers management practices in the promotion of child-friendly school environments. Specifically the study was to find out:

The state of physical facilities and equipment in the primary schools in South East, Nigeria.
The extent to which the head teachers ensure that the rights of children are protected.
The extent to which the head teachers provide a healthful environment for children.
The extent the head teachers promote gender equality.
The extent the head teachers foster collaborative relationships between the pupils, parents and the community.
The extent the head teachers encourage pupils interpersonal relationship with the staff.
How the demographic variables (state, location, gender, experience, and age of schools) predict the head teachers’ management practices in the provision of facilities and equipment in primary schools.
How the demographic variables (state, location, gender, experience and age of schools) predict the head teachers’ management practices in ensuring that the rights of children are protected in South-East Nigeria.
How the demographic variables (state, location, gender, experience and age of schools) predict the head teachers’ management practices in providing healthful environments for the pupils in South-East Nigeria.
How the demographic variables (state, location, gender, experience and age of schools) predict the head teachers’ management practices in promoting gender equality among pupils in South-East Nigeria.
How the demographic variables (state, location, gender, experience and age of schools) predict the head teachers’ management practices in fostering collaborative relationship between schools, parents and communities in South-East Nigeria.
How the demographic variables (state, location, gender, experience and age of schools) predict the head teachers’ management practices in encouraging pupils inter-personal relationships with staff South-East Nigeria.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This chapter presents the review of literature carried out under the following subheadings:

Conceptual Framework

Concept of:

Management
Management Practices
Child-friendly School Environments
Demographic Variables

Theoretical Framework

Maslow’s Theory of Needs
Alderfer’s Existence Relations Growth Theory (ERG)

Review of Empirical Studies

Studies on Management Practices
Studies on Child-friendly School Environments
Correlational and Demographic variables Studies

Conceptual Framework

Concept of Management

The need to mobilize people efficiently for the realization of set goals gives rise to all forms, theories, and definitions of management. It follows therefore that management is the effective utilization of human and material resources to achieve organizational goals. To manage complex organization including educational system is a difficult task. Aruma (2000) posited that it involves communicating ideas, skills and knowledge to various members of the organizations. In business organizations, the goal is to make profit and satisfy the consumers of the product while for the educational system; the goal is to obtain a relative permanent change in the behavior of the students by equipping them with prerequisite skills that will enable them to be relevant and functional member of the society. This obviously makes the definition of “management” imperative. Nw eke (2009) defined management as the process of allocating an organizations input (goals and services) so that the organizations objectives are accomplished.

Mgbodile (2004) defined management as the process or method whereby a group of people at the top level of the organization, plan, organize, communicate, coordinate, control and direct the actions and activities of those who work in an organization. To Peretomode (2001) management is concerned with the performance of executive duties, the carrying out of policies or decisions to fulfill a purpose and controlling the day to day running of the organization.

From the definitions, one can see management as a process by which human and non-human resources are coordinated to accomplish a given set of objectives. The fundamental goal of managing the educational system effectively as Aruma (2000)) opined is to make the pupils relevant to the country and conform to the norms and values of the society. Nwekwesi (2009) noted that the job of an educational manager is to plan, design and implement an efficient and effective learning system responsive to the needs of the learner and the society.

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHOD

This chapter presents the methods and procedures employed in the study. The presentation was made under the following heading: research design, area of the study, population of the study, sample and sampling technique, instruments for data collection, validation and reliability of the instruments, method of data collection and method of data analysis.

Design of the Study

The design adopted in this study is the correlational survey research design. The purpose of correlational research is to determine the relationship among two or more variables. Correlational research according to Uzoagulu (2011), investigates a range of factors, including the nature of relationship between two or more variables and the theoretical model that might be developed and tested to explain these resultant correlations. Thus the correlational design provides clues for proper understanding of the patterns of relationships among variables in the study. Therefore the correlational survey design becomes imperative since this study is a multivariant analysis of the relationship between demographic variables (State, location, gender, experience and school age) and head teacher management practices in the promotion of child-friendly school environment in South-East Nigeria.

Area of the Study

This study was carried out in the South- East zone of Nigeria. It was limited to all public primary schools in the five states which make up South-East Nigeria namely Enugu, Imo, Abia, Anambra and Ebonyi. The geographical location of South-East lies between the East Niger Basin, the South-Benue Basin and Cross River Basin. West of the River Niger, a branch extends west wards to the regions of the Niger Delta, with the Ibibio, Ijaw, Igala, Idoma and Edo as their neighbours.

The South – East is located in the forest region of Nigeria with outcropping to the West and lying between longitudes 6⁰ and 8⁰ East and latitude 5⁰ and 7⁰ North. The inhabitants live mainly to the East of Lower Niger with a small extension on the West Bank. They speak Igbo languages and dialects. Majority of them speak English alongside the Igbo languages as result of British Colonialism.

The states share similar features in their cultural, political, educational and social development. The states embraced formal education early during the colonial era. The citizens have a lot of interest and love for learning which make them to be educationally developed. However, it has been noted that the zone has been experiencing the dropout of boys and lack of facilities in public primary schools. It has become imperative to examine the extent the management practices of head teachers in the zone promotes child-friendly school environment.

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS

In this chapter, data for this study were analyzed and presented based on the research questions and hypotheses that guided the study.

Research Question One

What is the state of facilities, equipment and materials in the primary schools in South-East Nigeria?

The answers to the research question are presented in tables 1 to 5.

Table 1 shows that mathematics laboratories ( ´ = 1.19, SD = .60), ICT facilities ( ´ = 1.24, SD = .69), weather stations ( ´ = 1.45, SD = 1.04) are not available. Science laboratories ( ´ = 1.92, SD = 1.24) and staff rooms ( ´ = 2.25, SD = 1.49) are grossly inadequate. School library ( ´ = 2.66, SD = 1.23), school garden/farm ( ´ = 2.92, SD = 1.27), administrative blocks ( ´ = 3.02, SD = 1.26) and classrooms ( ´ = 3.27, SD = 1.25) are inadequate. Overall, the facilities in the schools are grossly inadequate ( ´ = 2.24, SD = 0.67).

CHAPTER FIVE

DISCUSSION, IMPLICATIONS, CONCLUSION AND

RECOMMENDATIONS

In this chapter, the discussion of the findings, conclusions, implications of the findings, recommendations, limitations, suggestions for further study and summary of the study are presented.

Discussion of the Findings

With reference to research question 1 of the study it was observed that the state of facilities, equipment and curriculum materials are grossly inadequate in public primary schools in South East. These findings show that facilities such as mathematics laboratories, ICT facilities and weather stations are not available. Available ones such as science laboratories, school libraries, administrative blocks and classrooms are inadequate. This might be connected with poor provision, control, direction and monitoring of school facilities, and equipment planning by the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and the ministry of education (MOE). A relatively low level of facilities and curriculum materials and equipment planning would constrain teaching and learning processes and students’ learning outcomes. The findings are in line with the observations of Omu (2006) that secondary schools are facing sever shortage of facilities. The findings equally agree with the findings of Enueme (2002), and Ogbuagu (2004) that most of the Nigerian public primary schools are characterized by inadequate and over-crowded classrooms, lack of equipment, furniture, teaching and learning materials.

Conclusion

The following conclusions are drawn based on the findings of the study. The major findings from the analysis of data on observation of the state of facilities, equipment and curriculum materials include the following:

Facilities in the primary schools are grossly inadequate.
Toilets in public primary schools for pupils and teachers are grossly inadequate.
Curriculum materials for teachers use are inadequate.
Water supply in public primary schools is grossly inadequate.
Games/sports facilities in public primary schools are grossly inadequate. Major findings on the management practices of head-teachers in public primary schools include:
Head teachers ensure that the right of children are protected to a high extent.
Head teachers provides a healthful environment for the pupils to a low extent.
Head teachers promote gender equality among pupils to a high extent
Head teachers foster collaborative relationship between schools, parents and communities to a high to a high extent.

Recommendations

Based on the findings and implications of the study, the following recommendations are made:

An effective, sustainable and equitable system for the mobilization and utilization of resources for the proper running of the public primary schools to provide quality education as well as inculcate maintenance culture in our school system, should be put in place by the Ministries of Education.

Policies and structures should be put in place by Ministry of Education, State Universal Basic Education Board and Local Government Education Authorities to provide support to encourage head teachers ensure the protection of the rights of the child in the state public primary schools.

Existing teacher development programmes should be intensified and re-aligned to accommodate emerging curricular and management skills as well as extend the knowledge base required by the head-teacher for effective promotion of child-friendly school environment.

Summary of the Study

This study was motivated by the serious concerns expressed by relevant stakeholders (teachers, supervisors, pupils and parents) on the management of public primary schools. The study focused mainly on correlates of management practices of primary school head teachers in promoting child-friendly school environments in South East, Nigeria.

The study used the correlational survey research design and was guided by twelve research questions and six hypotheses. A total of 192 public primary school head teachers in 3 states, constituted the sample. A total of 1920 classroom teachers of public primary schools obtained through non-proportionate stratified random sampling technique, were used for the study. A 58 – item structured questionnaire titled Management Practices of Head Teachers (MAPOT) Questionnaire and an observation checklist was used to collect data. The research questions were analyzed using mean and standard deviation while multiple regression with associated t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.

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